Freak
by HeatherKF
Summary: Wheeljack wears his blastmask for a reason. Ratchet doesn't care.


Wheeljack sighed.

Ever since the explosion that -believe it or not- wasn't actually an explosion, it was more so a compound reaction to the particles on his faceplate before he wore a blast mask; which ended up with his mouth component needing to be shut and sealed to prevent infection from slipping in. The reaction has more or less caused the inside of his mouth component to start peeling –literally coming apart in shreds of different sized bits of metal- until he started bleeding and choking so badly on his own energon that he needed to have a permanent berth in the medbay.

But that wasn't the worst part.

This infection of compound reactions had leaked into his energon; yet had only affected his mouth component. The 'disease' was starting to spread with the chemical that was known very well to Cybertron: Cybertronium. It was naturally present in the air; and while they didn't need to breath, talking opened the mouth component.

And even if he wasn't talking; it could still sip in through the cracks between his lips.

Wheeljack remembered being put under for surgery.

He also remembered being scared as pit.

The medic looked down at him gently; he was a blue and green-gray mech-

Wheeljack also heard he had been sent to a planet to help with the cosmic rust problem.

And he also heard how no bot made it out alive.

But his experiment!

Wheeljack hadn't actually been working with Cybertronium, so there really was no reason for him to have the reaction the way he did. His experiment rather just boiled a bit and started letting out a dark yellow smoke.

If he hadn't taken the smoke in and been coughing when it drifted up into his faceplates

 _If he had been wearing his blast mask that day it wouldn't have happened._

These days, Wheeljack usually wore his blast mask.

However, before the accident, he didn't really wear it.

He used to be able to smile and make the femme's in the area giggle madly. He was a fancy fragging car, after all. Fast, durable, and pretty good looking, if he did say so himself.

After the accident, Wheeljack lost his mouth components. He lost his smile. He lost his confidence. He lost his charm.

He didn't see much to life anymore.

If you asked around; most Autobot's would say that Wheeljack had been born with his blast mask. No bot could remember him without it.

But Wheeljack remembered. And he lamented it every day on the Ark.

It was strange when Ratchet came to Wheeljack. Ratchet was the medic aboard the Ark, but didn't usually do quarters call.

Besides Wheeljack being in the medbay half the time anyways; he didn't see why Ratchet would be looking for him.

As Ratchet lay down the file on Wheeljack in front of him with a very irritated look on his faceplate, Wheeljack browsed through his own file only moments later to find a new scan that showed the cavity that was there behind his blast mask.

What used to be his mouth component.

Ratchet had asked about this, more than likely just being concerned about why Wheeljack didn't tell his medic about something that could be potentially dangerous.

Wheeljack had been reluctant to talk; but when Ratchet was willing to give him space (as long as it wasn't detrimental to Wheeljack's health) he thought seriously about telling him. After a few days he had told Ratchet about the whole story…and didn't feel as ashamed as he thought he might.

Ratchet had listened intently and patiently; without hint of judgement on his faceplates. When Wheeljack had finished his long -and at some points- very distressing story, Ratchet had smiled at the engineer softly. He told him how proud he was that he didn't give up; and offered some of his special brew (that he hassled Prowl into giving it to him; who confiscated from the twins).

Wheeljack had accepted the admittedly powerful drink; and even he had to admit

He hadn't had so much fun since he used to flirt with femme bots.

Before Wheeljack knew it, he and Ratchet were an 'item;' holding each other at night, brushing the other's servo subtly, giving each other playful glances whenever they passed by each other during their daily routines. Not quite bonded; but not open for interfacing or otherwise 'dating' with other mechs.

Wheeljack had been snuggling up against Ratchet's warm chassis in the safety of their quarters; completely comfortable.

"Wheeljack."

Wheeljack turned his helm and looked up at Ratchet; who held his helm at an angle to look down at Wheeljack.

"Will you take off your mask?"

"Ratchet.."

"Please? I won't push you farther than you're willing to go, but I would like to see you."

Wheeljack hesitated before sending a conscious ping to his retractors; and his mask popped off when he lifted his servo to take it.

As his servo came down, Ratchet took in the view before him.

There was no mouth component, just a few silver scars where it was indented with the pain of being sealed and unused. It was a solid structure; with not indication that there was any sort of ability for the outside air to infiltrate Wheeljack's metallic skin. His face looked abnormal, for sure, but as Wheeljack watched Ratchet study him, he felt no malice; no fear, anger or disgust.

"How do you speak?"

Wheeljack wasn't surprised by this question; he heard it many times before.

"Well, my audio fins aren't really audio fins. They are; but they aren't just for making pretty colors when I 'talk,' I talk through my audio fins. They were rerouted at surgery to handle my vocal relay."

Ratchet brought a servo to touch the smooth metal. The scars were smooth, yet had a rough, almost adverse feeling when Ratchet dragged his digit down one gently. The surface of the metal around the scars were raised before the scars went to make their natural indenture into the engineer's faceplate. Wheeljack's blast mask being on all the time probably created how his lower faceplate was so smooth.

Ratchet slowly leaned forward, until his lip components brushed where Wheeljack's used to be. Wheeljack could feel his spark racing inside his sparkchamber. It was exhilarating and absolutely, completely fragging terrifying at the same time.

Wheeljack was waiting for Ratchet to realize that he was kissing a mech that was a freak.

That lost one of his best features in an accident.

That-

"Primus Wheeljack…you're _beautiful._ "

Wheeljack could feel the way the medic gently kissed over his damaged faceplate, making soft sounds of pleasure as Ratchet nuzzled against his sensitive audio fin before raining feather light kisses down the engineer's faceplate and finally going back to soft smooches where his mouth component would be.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

There weren't sparks of amazement happening, or sudden true love as most human movies made it seem

But it felt really fragging good to be 'kissing' Ratchet (it was more of his playing with Ratchet's servos while Ratchet kissed him so very sweetly to return the favor, all in this strange yet very welcome cycle).

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.


End file.
